What's in a realm?

I've been doing some research and have come to the conclusion that Hydraxis might not be the best realm to start the guild on.  Various people on the official forums have said that its not a very good realm for Horde.  I also got a trial account to check out the realm first hand.  I wasn't impressed.  As such, I've been trying to find a new realm where we could start out.  I want a server that's at least slightly higher in population on the Horde side.  I've looked at the Warcraft Realms website to try and help with that.  I'm also looking at the official realm forums, checking to see first hand (via trial membership) to see how many low level players were just starting out, checking to see what the population was like in the busiest (non-WOTLK) cities, and checking to see what kind of quality and traffic the trade channels received.

I also wanted to limit the realms to Normal PVE, however @myrandriel via twitter suggested that I try a RP-PVP realm, namely Ravenholdt.  I'm not really looking at RP realms simply because it doesn't appeal to me at the moment.  However, @myrandriel assured me, "Contrary to popular belief, you don't actually have to RP on an RP realm. And anyway, only like a fraction of us RP anymore."  I took a look at the official realm forums for Ravenholdt and was surprised by the positive attitudes and maturity the posters displayed.  On most realm forums you see a barrage of posts about how better someone is over another or how so-and-so guild sucks.  I was actually shocked to not see any of that on the Raveholdt realm forum.  In-game, I saw a similar result.  There was no trade chat shenanigans that you see on most realms.  It was surprisingly refreshing. Even so, I'm still not 100% sure I want to setup shop on an RP realm.

I've narrowed my search to four realms: Ravenholdt, Blackhand, Cairne, and Ysera.  Logging into Blackhand as an Orc Rogue I see 3 others running around the area working on beginner quests.  On my way to the city, I don't see anyone but my /who search reveals that there are 11 players under the level of 20.  Just outside of Orgrimmar there is the usual bunch of duelers, in this case there were 5.  Taking a look around in the city I can see around 10 players that are non-guilded.  The trade chat seemed fairly normal with people looking for more for heroics, instances, and raids.  There were also a couple people advertising their guild, someone looking for a guild, and another giving 10 gold for charter signatures.  According to Warcraft Realms the overall population is about 17, 500 with 61% behind Horde.  Its a PVE server in a central timezone and its considered a medium population realm.  The official realm forum doesn't seem very active, mostly just people advertising their guilds or selling/trading items.   

Next to evaluate is Cairne.  In the starting zone there was 16 players below level 20.  On the way to Orgrimmar there are skeletons everywhere, which suggests some world pvp.  Inside the city there doesn't seem to be too many players that do not have a guild.  There were maybe a couple who were non-guilded.  While in the city someone whispered me and asked if I wanted to be the GM of their guild.  They were also yelling for someone to be the GM of their guild in trade chat... classy.  There was also someone who named their character Chucknorrizz...ugh.  The trade chat itself seemed fairly normal with the addition of some QQ about there not being enough healers.  On the Cairne official forums there seems to be some QQ and immature posts, but overall it doesn't seem very active.  The Warcraft Realms site says Cairne is 50% Horde and 50% Alliance with an overall population of around 12,000 and its in a central timezone.  Obviously, the stats don't seem to match up with what the official site says (it considers Carine a high population realm).

The Ysera official forums seems fairly normal and are a little more active than the last two realms but only by a couple of days.  According to Warcraft Realms, this realm has a population around 21,000 with 61% being Horde.  Its a normal realm and its in an eastern timezone.  There were 17 out of 25 players in the starting area that were lower than level 20.  In Orgrimmar there were only a few players who were non-guilded.  Trade chat seemed fairly normal without any major QQ or immaturity.  There was a couple guilds advertising as well.

Evaluating Ravenholdt a bit more I found that they are not only fairly active on the official realm forums but they also have some forums devoted especially to the RPers of Raveholdt at www.ravenholdt.us.  Warcraft Realms says that it is an eastern timezone realm and its population is around 19,000, favoring the Horde.  There were 2 players right away in the starting area, although one of them was named Fistinbutt.  I guess there are idiots on every server.  While on my way to Orgrimmar, I was messaged by someone.  He/she spammed me with the question, "y arent u doin quests," but when I answered, he/she seemed very friendly and told me how great the server was.  In Orgrimmar there were a few players without a guild and the trade chat was very active with the usual banter, selling/trading, and advertising.

Right now it seems like Ravenholdt has many advantages over the other three but I'm still not sure.  I'll need to determine exactly what the guild needs in a server.